Category: Car and Driver

I had an elucidating conversation with Slate writer Henry Grabar about his new book “Paved Paradise,” which looks at why there is too much parking in America, why it is inordinately expensive and improperly distributed, and how we can fix this.

Electric motors and gasoline-powered engines are very different. But on some models—like Maserati’s GranTurismo—automakers think verse platforms that can take either like a champ make good business sense. Others are taking a very different route. Who is doing what, and why, in this confounding era allegedly leading up to full electrification. Check out my primer in this cute digital version, or just buy the magazine on the newsstand you Chintzy Blt¢h.

Los Angeles is a global capital of automotive culture, a germinating point for trends set amid ubiquitous superhighways and crushing smog and traffic. But how and why did L.A. become a city of cars? A deeply researched and richly illustrated new book seeks to answer these questions.

My latest “Design Rejects” is one of my favorites, because of its still-untapped prescience, and because it gave me an excuse to call Bob Lutz, and that guy always delivers excellent Grouchy Quote™.

To celebrate the diamond jubilee of the iconic German brand, a new book explores the history of its first model, and its deeply collaborative past with Hitler and the Nazis.

A handsome new coffee table book looks back at the fascinating and convoluted history of the charging bull brand.

My latest Design Rejects column looks at what Pontiac had planned for the Fiero if it had been granted a second generation, instead of summarily killed.

Click on the thumbnail above (then click again) to view a crappy scan, or just subscribe to the magazine already you chintzy blt¢h.

For my latest Car and Driver book column, I look at a new collection of Time and Life photographer John Zimmerman’s midcentury images of the Big Three, which show an industry at the peak of its influence.

This 1400-page, four-volume, $350 book set is an amazing contribution to automotive scholarship, documenting the wide-ranging glories of the Japanese car industry.

The actual car that “sat” for this painting is up for sale, but more interesting than that is the story of how the whole project came together.